From where I’m sitting their business model and plans are all over the shop

There is a very interesting comment on Paid Content about the decision of New Media Age to go behind a paywall,

It comes from Ashley Friedlein,CEO,Econsultancy

Well… good luck to them. Brandrepublic (Haymarket’s mad.co.uk equivalent) will go the same way soon.
But I don’t rate their chances if they think news, however “big-hitting”, will sell. I can’t complain because it will only benefit the likes of us (niche) on the one hand and bigger free media players (in particular the BBC) on the other.
If you take a look at the traffic stats for our site (http://econsultancy.com) versus nma.co.uk verusus brandrepublic.com (see http://siteanalytics.compete.com/econsultancy.com+nma.co.uk+brandrepublic.com/ for rough idea) then the outlook looks even more bleak. This is the state *before* they put up the paywall…?!
Meanwhile, Centaur are launching separate sites like http://reputationonline.co.uk/ - a hot area maybe but just further dilutes the brand and SEO equity overall.
The last edition of NMA I had contained 3 ads excluding their own and excluding recruitment ads.
I really rate NMA’s content but from where I’m sitting their business model and plans are all over the shop…?

Ht-Adam Tinworth